220 MASSACHUSETTS HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



The plants are set at from six feet by six feet, to ten feet by 

 ten feet, according to the caprice or understanding of the cultivator. 

 Six feet appears to be too near for the perfect development of the 

 mature leaves, to say nothing of the requirement of sufficient space 

 for passage between the plants, without interference or injury. 

 About eight feet by ten feet appears to be a satisfactory compro- 

 mise and will afford room for five hundred plants per acre. With 

 the exception of weeding and reduciug tlie lateral shoots and 

 suckers during the first year, little care or culture is required. 



Recorded experience is not yet sufficient to enable one to form a 

 correct judgment as to the bearing life of the plant or its maximum 

 product, but it seems to be pretty generally conceded that under 

 ordinary circumstances the plants are in a mature and bearing con- 

 dition at from four to five years of age ; that about forty leaves can 

 be cut from each plant annualW, weighing about sixty pounds ; 

 that it is better for the plant, as well as the crop, to make the 

 cutting at intervals of three or four months than to make it once a 

 year, as the leaves thus obtained will be taken at full maturity and 

 are not so liable to be over-ripe and comparatively worthless. 

 When the leaves assume a position horizontal to the trunk they 

 are sufficiently mature to cut. and if taken either before or after 

 are of diminished value. When cut, the leaves are tied into 

 bundles and taken to the machine, which is simple and easih' 

 operated, and are passed, one bj^ one, through it. They are 

 crushed and the fibre is stripped of the pulp which constitutes 

 fully ninet3"-five per cent of the weight of the leaf. P'rom eight 

 hundred to one thousand pounds of fibre can be obtained from 

 each acre at a cost, including cultivation, cutting, stripping, and 

 drying, of about three cents per pound. 



These plants are very tenacious of life and one has been known 

 to grow nicely after having been kept dry in a tight box for eigh- 

 teen months. When the plant arrives at its full maturity it has a 

 tendency to run up a flower stalk called a "pole," which grows 

 from sixteen to eighteen feet high with a diameter at the base of 

 from five to seven inches and bears, instead of blossoms, as many 

 as one thousand young plants, perfectly formed and ready to 

 maintain an independent existence. This occurs probabU^ when 

 the plant is from ten to thirteen years old, according to the 

 luxuriance of its growth, but, singular as it may seem, although 

 this plant is indigenous all over these islands and the natives have 



